First volume of the autobiography of Richard Adams covering his early life in Taunton, undergraduate days at Oxford and experiences across Omagh, Palestine, Jerusalem, Egypt, Normandy, Denmark, Singapore and Bombay between 1940 and 1947. The account ends with Adams giving Latin tuition to the girl next-door who became his future wife. Adams' early years should be of particular interest to any devotee of the novels since they concern a plethora of incidents which first fired his enthusiasm for nature. The book may be of particular interest to anyone interested in the social history of the period from 1920 to the aftermath of World War II.